Serious situation of affairs in Italy--Trouble with
_Monsieur_--Richelieu entrusted with the command of the Army in
Italy--It is decided to send Bassompierre on a special embassy to
Switzerland--The marshal buys the Château of Chaillot--His
departure for Switzerland--Mazarin at Lyons--Bassompierre’s
reception at Fribourg--He arrives at Soleure and convenes a meeting
of the Diet--His discomfiture of the Chancellor of Alsace--Success
of his mission--He receives orders from Richelieu to mobilise 6,000
Swiss--The Cardinal as generalissimo--Pinerolo
surrenders--Bassompierre joins the King at Lyons--Louis XIII and
Mlle. de Hautefort--Successful campaign of Bassompierre in
Savoy--His mortification at having to resign his command to the
Maréchal de Châtillon--Increasing rancour of the Queen-Mother
against Richelieu--Visit of Bassompierre to Paris--An unfortunate
coincidence--Louis XIII falls dangerously ill at Lyons--Intrigues
around his sick-bed--Perilous situation of Richelieu--Recovery of
the King--Arrival of Bassompierre at Lyons--Suspicions of Richelieu
concerning the marshal--The latter endeavours to disarm
them--Question of Bassompierre’s connection with the anti-Richelieu
cabal considered--His secret marriage to the Princesse de Conti.
Meantime, the enemies of France had not been idle. Seeing Richelieu
engaged in what he imagined would prove a long war in Languedoc, the
Emperor, in concert with Spain, resolved to take steps to recover his
shaken influence in Italy. Towards the end of May, 1629, German troops
entered the Grisons and seized the passages of the Rhine and the town of
Coire; while Ferdinand called upon Louis XIII to evacuate the “Imperial
fiefs of Italy.” The Swiss, a prey to religious dissensions, made no
effort to expel the foreigner from the Grisons; but the Imperialists did
not advance until the autumn, the interval being spent in negotiations.
However, at the end of September they descended into Lombardy and
invaded Mantua, under the orders of the Italian general Colalto; while
Spinola, who had been sent with a Spanish force from the Netherlands to
secure the triumph of the Catholic powers in Italy and had replaced the
feeble Don Gonzalez de Cordoba as Governor of the Milanese, occupied
Montferrato and threatened Casale.
It was clear that France must intervene at once, if the fruits of the
expedition to Susa were not to be lost, and it was decided to send a
powerful army into Italy. Louis XIII would have gone in person, but his
health was unequal to the trials of another winter campaign, besides
which there was trouble with _Monsieur_, who, in the previous September,
as the result of differences with the King over the latter’s refusal to
permit his marriage with Marie de Gonzaga, daughter of the Duke of
Mantua, had retired into Lorraine and had not yet been persuaded to
return; while there was also a possibility that the Imperialists might
invade Champagne or the Three Bishoprics.
The King accordingly decided to entrust the command to Richelieu, with
Créquy and Bassompierre as his lieutenant-generals.
“But,” says the latter, “M. de Schomberg, who aspired to my charge,
caused pressing instances to be made by the ambassadors of Venice
and Mantua to send me into Switzerland, for three purposes: the
first, to ascertain what means there might be to liberate the
Grisons and drive out the Imperial army; the second, to prevent the
Imperialists in Italy being reinforced by troops from Switzerland;
and the third, to raise powerful levies, if there were need of
them. So that the Cardinal told me one morning that it was
necessary for me to make a journey into Switzerland, which would
not last long, and that my place and my charge would,
notwithstanding, be preserved in the Army of Italy. I accepted this
commission, since the King desired to charge me with it, and began
preparations for my journey, as did the Cardinal likewise for his
journey to Italy.”
Before his departure Richelieu gave “a superb _fête_ to the King and the
Queens, with comedies, ballets, and excellent music.” Then, on December
29, he set out for Lyons, with the proud title of “Lieutenant-General,
representing the person of the King in his army within and without the
realm.”
* * * * *
Bassompierre began the year 1630 by purchasing from the widow of
Président Jeannin her château at Chaillot, upon the enlargement and
decoration of which he, during the next few months, expended very large
sums, and converted it into one of the most sumptuous country-residences
in the neighbourhood of Paris. Unhappily for him, it was to prove a case
of sowing for others to reap. On January 16, “after having placed his
affairs in some degree of order,” he set out for Switzerland, and on the
21st arrived at Lyons, where he was to receive his final instructions
from the Cardinal. At Lyons he remained for some days and would appear
to have passed the time very pleasantly, as “M. de Montmorency and I
gave a ball on alternate evenings to the ladies of Lyons.” On January 28
he notes that “the sieur Julio Massareny [Giulio Mazzarini] came to
Lyons on behalf of the Nuncio Pensirole [Pancirolo], whom the Pope had
sent to treat for peace.” It was on the occasion of these negotiations
that the name of Mazarin makes its first appearance in French history;
and, though they were without result, for Richelieu was not to be
diverted from his aim, the high opinion which the Cardinal then
conceived of the abilities of the young Italian diplomat was the
beginning of the latter’s fortune.
On January 30 Bassompierre left Lyons and resumed his journey to
Switzerland. On February 8 he arrived at Fribourg, where he was received
with great honour, cannon firing salutes and 2,000 armed burghers lining
the streets. After entertaining the municipal authorities to a sumptuous
banquet, he proceeded to Berne, to be received with similar distinction.
On the following day he attended a meeting of the Council and harangued
them. “Afterwards they came to dine with him and remained all day at
table.”
On the 12th he arrived at Soleure, into which he made a “superb entry.”
From Soleure he sent letters to all the Cantons convening a Diet for
March 4, and during the interval he and Brulart de Léon, the permanent
French Ambassador in Switzerland, had several conferences with regard to
the Grisons and endeavoured to persuade the Canton of Zurich to send
them reinforcements. The Zurich people, however, did not wish to commit
themselves to open war with the Empire, though they promised to assist
the Grisons secretly with munitions.
The deputies began to arrive on March 2, and the representatives of each
canton came in turn to pay their respects to Bassompierre; while on the
4th, when the session opened, the whole Diet, preceded by its
mace-bearers, came in solemn procession to salute him.
That day Bassompierre learned that “the Chancellor of Alsace, Ambassador
of the whole House of Austria, had arrived at Soleure, without sending
to him to announce his coming or visiting him, contrary to the
recognised custom of ambassadors.” The marshal, highly indignant at this
breach of diplomatic amenities, at once resolved to induce the Diet to
refuse the Chancellor--who had, of course, come to Soleure in the hope
of putting a spoke in Bassompierre’s wheel--a hearing.
“M. de Léon tried every means he could to dissuade me, telling me
that I should not succeed, and that we should have to bear the
mortification of failure. Nevertheless, trusting to my great
influence in Switzerland, and to my industry in treating with these
people, I persisted in my design and set to work.”
The marshal recounts at considerable length the various expedients to
which he had recourse, and the springs he set in motion, for the purpose
of avenging his outraged dignity. It will, however, suffice to say that
he succeeded, and that, after long deliberations, the Diet refused to
grant an audience to the Chancellor, “who returned very dissatisfied,
declaring that the Swiss would be objects of indignation to the whole
House of Austria.”
By dint of persuasive speeches and lavish hospitality, Bassompierre
experienced no difficulty in inducing the Diet to accord him permission
to raise whatever troops he might require for the service of France, and
on the 11th he was able to write to the Cardinal that his mission had
been entirely successful. Then he took to his bed and sent for a surgeon
to bleed him, as “he found himself somewhat unwell, on account of the
debauches in which he had indulged during the Diet.”
During the next fortnight Bassompierre was occupied in arranging for the
levy which the Diet had authorised, so that the troops might be ready to
take the field so soon as they were required. On March 27 a courier
arrived from the Cardinal with the news that the armistice between
France and Savoy was at an end, and that Richelieu had entered Piedmont
and was going to lay siege to Pinerolo. The Cardinal ordered
Bassompierre to mobilise 6,000 Swiss immediately, and informed him that
he had written requesting the King to send him other troops and a patent
as general for the conquest of Savoy.
Richelieu had moved his army through Savoy, crossed the Alps and
advanced to the frontier of Montferrato, when he learned, through
intercepted letters, that Charles Emmanuel was playing him false. He at
once turned about, called upon the Duke to fulfil his engagements, and,
the answer he received being unsatisfactory, marched against him. The
weather was frightful, and the soldiers, chilled to the bone by the icy
blast as they stumbled through the snow, “consigned to all the devils
the cardinal-generalissimo,” who rode at their head mounted on a
splendid charger, wearing a cuirass of blue steel, a hat with a nodding
plume on his head, a sword by his side, and pistols at his saddle-bow.
But they pushed on and presently reached Rivoli, which the Duke of Savoy
had hastily evacuated, where they found warmth and shelter and an
abundance of good wine, in which, forgetting their recent hardships,
they drank to the health of the “great cardinal.”
Charles Emmanuel had fallen back to Turin, and flattered himself that,
with the aid of Spinola and Colalto, he would be able to give battle to
the French on advantageous terms beneath the walls of his capital. But
Richelieu, instead of advancing on Turin, turned back towards the Alps
and on March 20 invested Pinerolo, which Henri III had so imprudently
restored to Savoy at the beginning of his reign. The town surrendered on
the 23rd, and the citadel a week later, and France thus secured an
invaluable base for future operations. The first attack on the citadel
cost the life of Bassompierre’s old companion-in-arms Cominges-Guitaut,
a very brave man and most capable officer, who was sincerely regretted
by the marshal.
Bassompierre remained at Soleure until April 20, when he left for
Geneva, where the troops which he had raised were to assemble. On May 4
he received a despatch from Louis XIII, informing him that he intended
to make the conquest of Savoy in person and directing him to join him at
Lyons to receive his orders. He was to send the Swiss to Grenoble,
whither the King intended to proceed so soon as possible.
Louis XIII had left Fontainebleau towards the end of February, and had
remained for some weeks at Troyes, as it was thought not improbable that
the Imperialists, who were in strong force in Alsace and on the borders
of Lorraine, might attempt an invasion of Champagne. Here, on April 18,
he was joined by his brother, whom he had not seen since Gaston had
taken himself off to Lorraine in the previous autumn.[131] The King
received him very cordially, and, on the advice of Richelieu, appointed
him “Lieutenant-General representing the King’s person in the Army of
Champagne, as well as in Paris and in the northern provinces.” It was
hoped in this way to satisfy the _amour-propre_ of this troublesome
prince, who was perpetually complaining that he was excluded from that
share in public affairs to which his rank entitled him, and to make it
to his interest to conduct himself well in future. The real commander of
the army of Champagne was, however, the Maréchal de Marillac.
The King, accompanied by the two Queens and the whole Court, then
proceeded through Burgundy to Lyons, where on May 6 Bassompierre joined
him, and was not a little astonished to find his Majesty amongst the
ladies, “gallant and amorous, which was contrary to his custom.” The
explanation is that Louis had recently fallen in love with Mlle. de
Hautefort, one of the Queen’s maids-of-honour. This affection was of a
very innocent kind, but it was skilfully exploited by the enemies of
Richelieu, and, in time to come, was to occasion the Cardinal
considerable embarrassment.
On the 8th the King left for Grenoble to confer with the Cardinal, who,
having confided the command of his army to La Force and Schomberg, had
come thither for that purpose. Although after the loss of Pinerolo
Charles Emmanuel had hastened to make overtures for peace, Richelieu had
little belief in his sincerity, and Louis XIII agreed with him on the
necessity of retaining so all-important an acquisition as Pinerolo. The
Queen-Mother and her creatures were, however, worrying the King
incessantly to spare the Duke of Savoy, and Louis, who desired peace
about him, and had vainly endeavoured to make his mother listen to
reason, sent the Cardinal to Lyons to represent to Marie more fully the
condition of affairs. This he did so ably that the Queen-Mother, though
sorely against her will, was obliged to admit the necessity of
continuing the war.
On the 14th the King, accompanied by Bassompierre, Créquy, and
Châtillon, left Grenoble with the army which had assembled there and,
passing through the Bresse, entered Savoy. The three marshals were to
command the army in turn, and the first period of command fell to
Bassompierre, who made good use of his opportunities. He took the town
and citadel of Chambéry; compelled Rumilly to surrender; and, pushing on
with the advance-guard over the difficult roads, turned the flank of the
Prince of Carignano, who commanded the main Piedmontese army, and
compelled him to beat a precipitate retreat from his strong position at
Conflans; and then, crossing the Col de la Louaz, the Col de Nave, the
Grand-Cœur and the Petit-Cœur, had occupied Moutiers and the Pas
du Ciel, when he received a despatch from the King instructing him to
resign his command to the Maréchal de Châtillon, whose turn it was to
lead the army.
“This offended me extremely,” says the marshal, “since I did not
think that, as the same troops would continue to form the
advance-guard, my person alone ought to be dethroned, and that
having started the hare, another should come to profit by my
labours.”
However, of course, he had no alternative but to hand over the command
to his colleague. But when, on June 4, the King and the Cardinal arrived
at Moustier, he “complained of the outrage that had been done him.”
However, he got no satisfaction from them, as they decided that the
arrangement that had been made at the outset of the campaign must be
adhered to.
By the third week in June all Savoy had been conquered, with the
exception of the citadel of Montmélian, which was being closely
blockaded, and Louis XIII and Richelieu returned to Grenoble, whither
Bassompierre followed them. On July 10 a division of the army of
Piedmont under Montmorency and d’Effiat defeated the forces of Charles
Emmanuel at Avigliana and occupied Saluzzo, which the Duke of Savoy had
annexed during the troubles of the League and retained at the cost of
much sacrifice of territory in 1601.
These rapid successes redoubled the ill humour of Marie de’ Medici,
whose rancour against Richelieu was industriously stimulated by the
Keeper of the Seals, Michel de Marillac, who, on the death of the
Cardinal de Bérulle in October, 1629, had succeeded him as the leader of
the High Catholic and Spanish party and the chief confidant of the
Queen-Mother. The King, anxious to prevent any new trouble in the Royal
Family, begged his mother to come to Grenoble, to give the Cardinal and
himself the benefit of her counsels. But Marie excused herself, and she
and Michel de Marillac did everything possible to dissuade the King from
returning to the army, on the ground that his health would be endangered
by contagious maladies which had broken out there. The Spaniards and
Imperialists, encouraged by the knowledge of the intrigues which were
proceeding at the Court of France, pressed the sieges of Mantua and
Casale, and, though the latter place, ably defended by Toiras, held out
bravely, on July 18 the Imperialists succeeded in taking Mantua by
assault.
In the last week in July Louis XIII, who, since the beginning of
the month, had been very unwell, was obliged, on account of his
health, to return to Lyons, where Bassompierre obtained leave to go
to Paris “to set his affairs in order.”
“I arrived in Paris,” he writes, “on the 21st day of August, where
I found M. d’Épernon. _Monsieur_, brother of the King, came there
on the morrow, and a few days later _M. le Comte_, M. de
Longueville, and M. de Guise arrived. We thought only of passing
our time pleasantly. I amused myself in building Chaillot.”
Now, of course, it may have been merely a coincidence that the
distinguished persons above-mentioned, all of whom were hostile to
Richelieu, should have arrived in Paris almost at the same time as
Bassompierre. But any way, it was an unfortunate one for the
marshal.
Richelieu, although very uneasy at the thought of leaving the King
exposed to the hostile influences of the Queen-Mother and her friends,
remained in Savoy for nearly a month after Louis XIII had returned to
Lyons, although the King’s confessor, Père Suffren, wrote urging him to
rejoin the Court, “in order to disperse all the clouds which had
gathered.” At length, towards the end of August, the plague, which was
devastating Savoy, attacked his own quarters, and obliged him to return.
On September 22, Louis XIII, who had been in very poor health for some
weeks, was attacked by fever, accompanied by dysentery. By the 27th he
was so ill that his physicians felt obliged to warn him that it was time
to think of his conscience, and he demanded the Viaticum, bade farewell
to his mother, his wife, and his Minister, and prepared for death. On
the morning of the 30th no one believed that he could live through the
day.
The two Queens and all the Court were loud in their expressions of
grief; but this did not prevent them from making their arrangements for
the morrow of the catastrophe which appeared so imminent, and, though we
may discredit the story that Anne of Austria instructed her _dame
d’atours_, the Comtesse du Fargis, to write to _Monsieur_ reminding him
of the project, more than once mooted, of a marriage between them in the
event of the King’s death, there can be no doubt that the Queen-Mother
was preparing to revenge herself upon “her ungrateful servant,” so soon
as his protector should have drawn his last breath.
As for Richelieu, his state of mind may be imagined. He saw his power
crumbling away, his liberty, and perhaps even his life, threatened, and,
what he valued more than life, his work, on the point of being undone,
and France stepping back into the chaos at home and impotence abroad
from which he had extricated her. “I know not,” he wrote to Schomberg,
“whether I am dead or alive.”
But, before the day was over, the sick monarch, to the astonishment of
all, and the mortification, it is to be feared, of not a few, took a
turn for the better, and on the morrow was out of danger. “By the grace
of God,” wrote the Cardinal to d’Effiat, “the King is out of danger,
but, to tell you the truth, I know not whether I am. I pray God that He
sends me death in His mercy sooner than the occasion of relapsing into
the state in which we have been.”
On learning that the King was ill and that his illness was “not without
danger,” Bassompierre returned in all haste to Lyons, where he arrived
on October 1, the day after the crisis. After paying his respects to the
King, he went to salute the two Queens, the Princesses of the Blood, and
the Cardinal, and then proceeded to the house of a M. d’Alaincourt, an
old friend of his, with whom he always stayed when at Lyons.
Richelieu had received Bassompierre very cordially and had “spoken to
him in great confidence.” But next day his manner changed and became
cold and distant. The marshal sought out Châteauneuf, who, until he was
so unfortunate as to succumb to the _beaux yeux_ of Madame de Chevreuse,
was one of the most faithful of the cardinal’s henchmen, and inquired
what he could possibly have done to offend his Eminence. Upon which
Châteauneuf told him that the Cardinal had been informed that
Bassompierre had “brought certain messages on behalf of _Monsieur_ to
the Queen-Mother, with a power to arrest him [Richelieu] if harm came to
the King.”
Bassompierre answered that “he dared swear that _Monsieur_ never had
such an idea, because when he [Bassompierre] left Paris, he was doubtful
whether the King was in danger.”
Châteauneuf then said that there were certain circumstances which, in
his Eminence’s opinion, appeared to confirm the rumour which had reached
him, namely, that the Maréchal de Créquy was staying at the same house
as Bassompierre; that the Duc de Guise had travelled part of the way
from Paris with the marshal and was now occupying the adjoining house,
and that Bassompierre visited the Queen-Mother every day, and the
Princesse de Conti, M. de Guise’s sister and one of her Majesty’s most
devoted adherents, every evening.
“I told him,” says Bassompierre, “that I had not seen _Monsieur_
the morning I left Paris, and that I had not taken leave of him the
previous evening; that I had not yet said a word to the
Queen-Mother, except aloud; that it was the duty of a courier, and
not of a marshal of France, to be the bearer of such powers, which
would have come too late, if God had not miraculously cured the
King; that, for ten years past, I had had no other lodging at Lyons
except the house of my old friend M. d’Alaincourt; that it was not
just of late that M. de Créquy and I had lived as brothers, but
since our first acquaintance, and that I had frequented the
Princesse de Conti’s society for thirty years; that La
Ville-aux-Clercs[132] and Guillemeau,[133] who had travelled post
with me, could bear witness that M. de Guise had left Paris after
me, that he had passed me the first day of my journey when I slept
at La Chapelle-la-Reine, that I had overtaken him the following
evening at Poully, and that at Moulins, since he was unable to
follow me, I preceded him; and that I begged him to assure the
Cardinal that I was not a man of faction or intrigue; that I always
concerned myself with serving the King well and faithfully first,
and afterwards my friends, of whom he was one of the chief, and I
had promised him very humble service. This he promised to do, and
having been to see him [the Cardinal], I told him in substance the
same things, with which he professed to be satisfied.”
It is difficult to decide how far Bassompierre was sincere in these
protestations. That he had been actually charged by _Monsieur_ with such
a commission as the Cardinal suspected may be doubted, but it is
practically certain that, if not an active member of the anti-Richelieu
cabal, he was in full sympathy with its main object. Nor is this a
matter for surprise. As a great noble, he resented Richelieu’s
determination to curtail the power and privileges of the nobility and
bring them into subjection. As a marshal of France, he disliked the
interference of an ecclesiastic in military matters, and he had not
forgiven the Cardinal for having supported the pretensions of Angoulême
during the siege of La Rochelle, thereby obliging him to accept a
separate command and depriving him of the honour of driving the English
from Ré. As a courtier and a favourite of the King, he found it
difficult to reconcile himself to the sight of a Minister exercising
such unbounded authority that no one could any longer hope for
advancement except through his good offices.
And there was yet another reason why Bassompierre should have desired to
see the success of the cabal. The Guises, and in particular the duke and
his sister, the Princesse de Conti, were among its most energetic
supporters. The former was now bitterly hostile to Richelieu, who had
lately deprived him of the post of Admiral of the Levant, while his
sister, as we have said, was a devoted adherent of the Queen-Mother.
Bassompierre had been on terms of close friendship with the Guises ever
since his arrival at the French Court, and his connexion with them was
now even closer than was generally suspected. For many years he had been
the lover--or, at least, the most favoured lover--of the Princesse de
Conti, who, following the example of Marie d’Entragues, had presented
him with a pledge of her affection in the shape of a natural son, of
whom we shall have occasion to speak hereafter; and at a date which is
unknown, but was probably some time between 1624 and 1630, this intimacy
had been regularised by a secret marriage.
It was only natural that Bassompierre should have sided with the party
to which his wife and brother-in-law belonged, and we can hardly blame
Richelieu, who no doubt knew all about the secret marriage--for there
were few secrets which his army of spies did not contrive to ferret
out--if he credited the marshal with hostile intentions towards him and
placed his name on the list of those distinguished persons upon whom, in
the event of his defeating the machinations of his enemies, he intended
to take summary vengeance.
It was, however, very far from certain that he would succeed in
defeating them. During the King’s convalescence the two Queens were
unremitting in their attentions, and Marie de’ Medici took advantage of
his weakness to launch all kinds of accusations against the Cardinal,
whom she charged with deliberately fomenting dissensions in the Royal
family and prejudicing the King’s mind against his mother, wife, and
brother, in order that he might dominate it entirely, and of prolonging
the war for the purpose of rendering himself necessary, and of
sacrificing his Majesty’s health to his ambition. The danger through
which Louis had just passed, and the solicitude which Anne of Austria
showed for him, had brought about a sort of reconciliation between the
royal pair, and the young Queen profited by this to second the
admonitions and entreaties of her mother-in-law. The latter gave her
unfortunate son no rest, and, at length, to free himself from her
obsessions, the King promised her that the Cardinal should be dismissed
so soon as peace in Italy had been re-established, or, according to
another version, that he would come to a decision on the matter after
his return to Paris.